What did you learn from those failures?

So w- why, why did we pursue, uh, Anglo American in the first place? It's because we like copper.

We've grown in copper over by 30%.

We've developed fig- four big internal, uh, copper growth options.

But we're BHP.

We have the ability to do even more.

Uh, we thought that there was a great opportunity to unlock value for both sets of shareholders through bringing the, the, the two companies together.

What's the guiding thought on leadership? If somebody were to, to be appointed chief executive today and you call them, what do you tell them?

Mm-hmm

... uh, copper growth options, but we're BHP.

We have the ability to do even more.

We thought that there was a great opportunity to unlock value for both sets of shareholders through bringing the two companies together.

It wasn't to be the first time around.

Uh, second time around, we were faced with the decision of, well, we, of course, for all the same reasons as we went out, we engaged it the first time around, do we reapproach, see if there's any more interest now, given that they had progressed some of their, uh, strategy, or do we hang back for fear of, of being told no again? I would back us any day of the week to do the bold thing-

Yeah

... on a transaction becomes a, a, a reputational issue, you end up in very deep water then and, and can cause yourself all sorts of, of problems.

And he felt compelled to write in and set the record straight.

So I emailed the program because at the big reveal of the Mystery Sound, which was about roe deer, Mark made an offhand comment about the size of Rachel's hands and that she would never be able to make the noise with screeching grass.

And I took umbrage at Mark's flippant comment because my two children, Innes who's seven and George who's 10, they make it all the time.

So we invited Rachel up to come and come and practice.

You're the master.

I've had a little bit of practice.

Ines, would you like to try this

And he felt compelled to write in and set the record straight.

So I emailed the program because at the big reveal of the Mystery Sound, which was about roe deer, Mark made an offhand comment about the size of Rachel's hands and that she would never be able to make the noise with screeching grass.

And I took umbrage at Mark's flippant comment because my two children, Innes who's seven and George who's 10, they make it all the time.

So we invited Rachel up to come and practice.

You're the master.

I've had a little bit of practice.

Ines, would you like to try this

Is that the BHP experience as well?

Look, I think this is the reality that we're dealing with.

And I'll use one example here.

We have a large copper expansion opportunity that you'd be aware of in South Australia.

And the South Australian state government has been very supportive and is working together with us to try to make sure that that investment happens.

And this could lead to a doubling of production from our copper South Australia basin now.

But for that to happen, and this is a really big capital investment, so huge opportunity in terms of the wealth it can generate for Australia, the jobs that it will create, but we're going to be competing against the building of smelters elsewhere that happens much more quickly, much more cheaply, where energy costs, and smelting is an energy intensive industry, are lower elsewhere, and so we're doing everything we can to make sure that we can refine and refine those plans to make sure that we're able to build something as cost competitively as possible to get it done quickly.

So ultimately, what went wrong? Was it the royalties alone?

Potash in Canada, how is that project going?

So it's going well.

And this is another exciting new business for BHP when both phases of it, so it's a two-phase project that we're developing currently, or two phases of the project are underway.

Total investment in these two phases is about $11 billion US.

When it's fully developed, this is going to supply about 10% of the world's potash markets.

And of course, that's going to be critical for farmers right here in the US to help them with growing their products more sustainably.

We did have a little bit of an over run that we announced in terms of costs for phase one of this or stage one of this project in our results.

And finally, how are you assessing the portfolio? Are you still acquisitive here? Are there certain businesses you'd consider exiting?

Was this a direction the company was going to take or did COVID impact what direction you thought the company should go in strategically?

So it's bang in line with the intent that we laid out as a management team and a board very early on.

So we were clear that BHP is 140 years old.

And one of the things that's allowed BHP to be successful over that period of time is we've constantly reinvented ourselves to align with the big trends underway in the world around us.

And looking at the drivers of ongoing population growth, ongoing economic growth and rising living standards around the world, the continuing development of the economy in China, and then overlaid with the energy transition, that has certain big implications in terms of commodities that are going to be in greatest demand over the next 20 or 30 years.

And so broad brush here.

The intent around the portfolio was to de-weight in those commodities that have a greater downside risk over a three or four decade period and up-weight in those commodities that stand to benefit from some of the big mega trends underway in the world around us.

How and why?